Category Archives: Exercise

Due to popular demand, the race organizers have implemented a lottery system to determine entrants. Last year, the race sold out in 5 hours! Within those 5 hours, there were problems accessing the website and I almost waited until after work to register. If I did, I wouldn’t have got in.

Enough of last year, this year I will be training without a group so I will be self motivated. It will be a true test of will to set a PR. This year I will beat 1:45:40!

If you sit at a desk like I do and are full of energy, sometimes you have to come up with ways to expel it while still "looking" productive. I have a few gadgets sitting around my desk such as balance board, which has become pretty popular item for people to try. Of course you don’t have to buy new items, you can use the office itself as illustrated below.

I hope I never become one of those people who count calories in and calculate calories out (what you burn). I do however pay attention from time to time at the gym while on the machines but they are just rough estimates based on an average formula created by the manufacturer.

Yesterday I helped my mother move from a 3rd floor 2-bedroom apartment to another 3rd floor 2-bedroom apartment. If you’ve ever moved someone from the 3rd floor without the help of elevators you already know the fun I had. By the end of the day I was exhausted, covered in sweat and my muscles were sore.

This morning I thought to myself that this had to have been a great workout. The soreness I had this morning said so. But then I wondered how many calories I burned which was funny given how I began this post. I fired up my browser and a few clicks later I discovered the good folks at SparkPeople.com were on the job. They have a calculator to figure out roughly how much I burned.

The most work I had to do was figure out how many minutes the move took. With some simple math I estimated that it took me 360 minutes or 6 hours. After adding my weight into the mix, they told me that I burned a whopping 5,166 calories. I had to double-check my figures there again after seeing that number.

Granted it’s only an estimate, under normal circumstances I would think the number is lower but with the many trips up and down steps with heavy objects, sometimes twisting them to fit through doorways, I can see that as very accurate.

Before you start to wonder about my time or activity, the actual move took 8 hours including travel time. I took out 2 hours to account for travel (about 30 minutes each way with 2 trips) and rest time. I’m constantly in motion during a move and my rests usually consist of carrying a lighter object to get the move done but there are times when activity must fully stop so I can take a full break.